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1. "No guns" policy at new Toby Keith restaurant in Woodbridge
2. Way behind on mailing: renewals to be in the mail in two weeks
3. VCDL member wants to organize an effort against anti-gun Dominion Valley Home Owners Association
4. Help needed for this weekend's Doswell gun show!
5. Reminder: Gun show and a supper meeting in Roanoke coming up
6. Victims tied up, held at gunpoint in Norfolk home invasion
7. Firearms stolen from restaurant
8. Opinion: Support for gun control helped a candidate win in VA
9. Allen West warns Obama's 'backdoor gun control is moving forward'
10. MILLER: Obama's EPA closing smelter will not affect ammunition supply
11. House Dems give grudging support to 10-year extension of gun ban
12. Is gun control the new third rail in politics?
13. Fast & Furious back with NY Post's Dodson book excerpt [VIDEO]
14. Why good people should be armed [VIDEO]
15. Dreams of a gun free zone [VIDEO]
16. Report: Gun bans result in higher murder rates
17. Murder and homicide rates before and after gun bans
18. Sandy Hook killer's mother taught him to shoot
19. [SC] Defiant 76 year old woman dies in shootout
20. Obama's home town by the (gun control) numbers
21. Activist challenges Phoenix in court over refusal to run GSL ads
22. Racist gun owners

The press seems more excited about Tobie Keith's restaurant in Woodbridge banning guns than gun owners.

Keith's restaurant in tidewater has banned guns for years. As we all know, restaurants banning guns are very few and far between, so in the scheme of things I can't stop yawning when I think about it.

The gun ban does make Tobie Keith a hypocrite, of course. But it is private property and there is no law against being a hypocrite. If there was, then Michael Bloomberg, Chuck Schumer, Diane Feinstein, and Barbara Boxer would all be behind bars. ;-)

What to do? Spend your money elsewhere. There are plenty of country-western entertainers who are not hypocrites to patronize. And most restaurants aren't self-defense-free zones.

No guns policy at new Toby Keith restaurant in Woodbridge
by John Henrehan, Fox 5 reporter
December 26, 2013

WOODBRIDGE, Va. - A big country star opened a huge, new restaurant last week in Woodbridge, Va. But a house rule for the new establishment is roiling some Virginians: no guns are allowed inside.

Toby Keith is not only a hugely successful country star (and actor), he also has personally opened a couple of restaurants, and through other companies, has now expanded those establishments into about a dozen cities.

The latest Toby Keith restaurant opened in Woodbridge. Prominently displayed on the front door is a sign saying: "NO GUNS PERMITTED."

Virginia happens to be a gun-friendly state, where it's quite permissible for citizens to strap on a weapon and go into a bar or restaurant, as long as the weapon is clearly visible. State law is silent on the issue of drinking while openly carrying a gun. (State law does prohibit most citizens who are legally carrying a concealed weapon from consuming alcohol, but they, too, are allowed to go into a bar or restaurant.)

The owners have the right to say "no" to firearms, and that's the rule at Keith's Woodbridge restaurant.

Facebook has erupted over the issue, with one patron saying she's "disappointed" and believes the no guns policy announces to criminals that "anyone leaving your establishment is likely completely defenseless and easy pickin's for a robbery." That poster said she will not patronize the new Toby Keith restaurant.

Another person wrote on the restaurant's Facebook page: the no guns policy is "sad" and it creates a "more dangerous environment."

The manager of the new restaurant declined to be interviewed, and the company that owns it did not respond to our inquiry. So, we asked customers outside what they think of the no guns policy.

"Well, I think it's a great idea," said Jayne Marconi, a visitor from Ohio. "Anywhere there's an establishment that serves alcohol, I'm going to tell you right now, alcohol can make you do funny things. So that [pointing to the "no guns" sign] absolutely makes me feel more comfortable."

Clator Butler, a Woodbridge resident, said the posted policy should be no issue at all.

"It's a private business," said Butler, "and [the business] has the right to set the rules that it wants."

We didn't find anyone at Toby Keith's who objected to the no guns rule. It's possible we found no dissension because gun fans are boycotting the establishment. If that's happening, the boycott doesn't appear to be effective. At lunchtime, there was a 20-minute wait for tables.

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2. Way behind on mailing: renewals to be in the mail in two weeks
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For those still waiting for the renewal letters to arrive in the mail, I apologize.

After making significant and time-consuming changes to the structure of our membership database, and getting as many online renewals as we could (online renewals are cheaper and quicker for VCDL to process), we are finally at the point of mailing those who have not yet renewed.

If all goes well (fingers crossed), renewals should be received by mail within the next couple of weeks.

We have a schedule for next year so that renewals are all done in a timely manner!

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5. Reminder: Gun show and a supper meeting in Roanoke coming up
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GUN SHOW

The Roanoke Gun Show will be on Saturday and Sunday, January 4 and 5, at the Roanoke Civic Center. If you are planning on assisting at this show, please advise Board member Al Steed Jr. with an email to:

Victims tied up, held at gunpoint in Norfolk home invasion
by Sarah Pawlowski
December 3, 2013

NORFOLK—Norfolk police are searching for suspects who invaded a home Tuesday morning and tied up and held victims at gunpoint.

The invasion, in the 3400 block of Thomas Street, occurred at about 9 a.m., according to Norfolk Police spokeswoman Karen Parker-Chesson.

The victims told officers they walked in on two or three black males who had entered their home. After the victims were tied up, the suspects took property from their home and fled. At least one of the suspects fled in the victims' green 1998 Infinity, Parker-Chesson said.

The Leesburg Police Department is seeking the whereabouts of one man and the identity of a second suspect involved in the theft of firearms from a town restaurant.

According to Leesburg Police, around 9 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 23, officers responded to the Cajun Experience, located at 14 Loudoun Street SE, for report of a burglary.

Sometime around 12:45 a.m. two people forced entry into the business by pushing open a window pane and unlocking the rear door. Once inside the restaurant, the two men forced entry into a padlocked closet and stole seven rifles and shotguns. The total value of the seven guns stolen is approximately $3,300.

Through surveillance video one person was identified as being a former employee of the business. Schuyler Charles Bertolette, 27, of Leesburg, is wanted on charges of burglary and grand larceny. Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Bertolette is asked to contact the Leesburg Police Department at 703-771-4500.

The Leesburg Police Department also is seeking the public's help in identifying a second person seen on the surveillance video. The unidentified man is described as a white, possibly 6-feet tall and approximately 200 pounds. From the video, the subject has a goatee and was wearing a light colored hooded sweatshirt jacket at the time of the burglary.

Anyone that has information regarding the identity of the second man involved, or about the burglary in general, is asked to call Detective Chris Vogel at 703-771-4524. Callers wishing to remain anonymous may call the Leesburg Crime Line at 703-443-TIPS or use TIPSUBMIT from a smart phone or a computer. Links to TIPSUBMIT can be found on the police department's website at www.leesburgva.gov/police.

Cajun Experience gained national attention earlier this year for its policy promoting the open carry of firearms in the restaurant.

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8. Opinion: Support for gun control helped a candidate win in VA
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Great work of fiction. When guns became an issue late in the gubernatorial campaigns, McAuliffe's lead dropped from around 17% to 2%. Gun control helped McAuliffe? Oh, I don't think so. He was lucky he didn't start pushing gun control sooner.

Political conventional wisdom has it that in a purple state, such as Virginia, support for gun-safety legislation is best played down. As manager of Mark Herring's campaign for attorney general, I got a lot of advice. One of the things I heard most frequently was that we should soft-pedal his strong record and advocacy for sensible gun legislation. It would hurt us outside of Northern Virginia and wasn't a voting issue within the Beltway, I was told.

Like much conventional wisdom, this was wrong — and we not only ignored this advice but did the opposite. There were stark differences between Herring and his Republican opponent, Sen. Mark D. Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg), on gun safety. Obenshain opposed comprehensive background checks and opposed closing the gun-show loophole. He opposed former governor Douglas Wilder's landmark "one-gun-a-month" legislation. Obenshain also made a habit of voting for such irresponsible proposals as allowing guns in bars and restaurants where alcohol is served.

In short, Obenshain has opposed every constructive proposal to help reduce gun violence.

We knew this would open an opportunity for us to draw an effective contrast; public polling showed widespread support for sensible gun-safety laws, as did our own polling. Hence, more than a year out from Election Day, dealing with gun violence was a fundamental messaging point for Herring. And when the primary was over, and Herring and Obenshain met in their first debate, he drew a sharp contrast with his opponent on guns. We would prosecute that case throughout the fall campaign.

Obenshain's position against gun-safety legislation was standard GOP fare — but it reflected a state and a voter mind-set that no longer exist. Almost all Virginians support sensible gun-safety legislation. Over the years, the commonwealth has become more urban and suburban, not only in Northern Virginia but also in Norfolk and Richmond. We found broad support in the Washington suburbs, Richmond and Norfolk for comprehensive background checks and ending the gun-show loophole.

Campaigns must make difficult financial choices, and in the general election, we knew we were going to be outspent by as much as three to one. We also knew that two issues would be powerful to voters: gun violence and Obenshain's extremist views on women's health issues. We couldn't afford to focus on both simultaneously, so we started our television campaign on Obenshain's record on women. Our intent was to start with these issues, broaden the offensive and eventually close by focusing on Obenshain's record of inaction, or worse, on gun violence.

Ultimately, we never stopped talking about Obenshain's abysmal record on women's health. Independence USA, the super political action committee started by New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Americans for Responsible Solutions, the organization founded by former representative Gabrielle "Gabby" Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, joined the race in the closing weeks, running commercials that discussed gun violence issues.

The National Rifle Association ran commercials against Herring, but its messages were directed at voters who our own polling showed were never accessible to Herring. The NRA avoided the largest concentrations of swing voters in the Northern Virginia, Norfolk and Richmond markets. That is not a recipe for growth or success.

The swing vote began to shift dramatically in our favor at the end. When the ballots were counted in Northern Virginia, Herring not only beat Obenshain there by more than 100,000 votes, but he also increased the total Democratic vote in Northern Virginia for attorney general by more than 124,000 since the last election. A post-election survey of voters in Northern Virginia by the Global Strategy Group indicated that 57 percent of those who voted for Herring in Northern Virginia believe gun issues had a major impact on the way they voted.

This massive increase wasn't just about the mechanics of campaigning. The painful and numbing record of senseless gun violence — from Columbine High School in Colorado to Virginia Tech to Newtown, Conn., and, during the heart of the fall campaign, the Navy Yard shooting — was the real determinant of voters' sentiments. Our campaign pointed out the contrast, and voters lined up on our side. Even the NRA's active opposition in its home state could not change the fact that voters rejected our opponent's radical position on gun safety. Those perpetuating the conventional wisdom should take notice: In the end, voters were calling out for action on gun violence, and they flocked to the candidate who offered progress and a sensible, mainstream approach to protecting Virginians.

Allen West warns Obama's 'backdoor gun control is moving forward'
by Cheryl K. Chumley-The Washington Times
December 2, 2013

Come 2014, all ammunition sold to civilian gun-owners in America will have to be imported, a result of President Obama's crackdown on sulfur dioxide and lead emissions and accompanying harsh Environmental Protection Agency regulations, said former Florida congressman, Lt. Col. Allen West.

And for defenders of the Second Amendment, that means higher ammo prices are likely on the way — a situation Mr. West writes on his blog, AllenBWest.com, is akin to a federal power-grab on guns, albeit through the backdoor.

He said the situation stemmed from the shutdown of The Doe Run Lead Smelter in Missouri, a business that's been around since 1892 but due to close at the end of this month. Mr. West said it's due to new air standards placed on the company that would have cost $100 million to achieve.

"[This] will surely increase the price and possibly come under government control," Mr. West warned, Breitbart.com reported. "It seems this is fully in concert with the U.S. Military and Homeland Defense recent purchase of large quantities of ammunition."

He said the "chilling effect" is that while the closure of the smelt plant doesn't take guns out of the hands of Americans, it does put in jeopardy ammunition supplies.

"You can own all the guns you want, but if you can't get ammo, you are out of luck," Mr. West wrote, on his blog. "Remember when President Obama promised his minions that he was working on gun control behind the scenes? Welcome to it. The result is that all domestically mined ore will have to be shipped overseas, refined and then shipped back to the U.S."

Mr. West warned: "Not only will ammo be even harder to come by, the demand and the process of supply will cause the price to skyrocket even more. And ponder this, there is an excellent chance that Obama will rig the market to where all ammo has to be purchased from the government, instituting an ammo registration. … So America, back door gun control is moving forward … [and] our Second Amendment rights are undergoing an assault by clandestine infiltration."

Gun owners can rest easy about one aspect of President Obama's agenda. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decision to close the country's last remaining lead smelter will not cause further ammunition shortages or higher costs.

Lawrence Keane is the senior vice president and general counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), which represents the ammunitions and firearms industry.

"Manufacturers use recycled lead to make ammunition. They don't buy from smelters," Mr. Keane told me Monday. "The EPA closing, which has been in the works for a while, will have no impact on production, supply or cost to the consumers."

A primary smelter is like a coal mine — it takes the lead out of the ground and turns it into a usable product. The more than 100-year-old Doe Run Lead Smelter is closing its Herculaneum plant at the end of the year to comply with air-quality standards set by the EPA.

American ammunition manufacturers use lead that has been recycled from a variety of everyday products, like car batteries and tire weights.

Ammunition supply has been at historic lows over the last year. This has led some to believe Internet conspiracy theories blaming Mr. Obama, such as the Department of Homeland Security buying up the civilian supply.

In fact, supply is low simply because demand was off the charts in the year leading up to Mr. Obama's re-election. After the president announced his gun-control agenda following the Newtown tragedy last December, demand rose for the already-low supply, which led to empty shelves.

Heavy demand continues today because of gun owners' legitimate fears of additional federal and state restrictions on their Second Amendment rights.

The major manufacturers have been trying to backfill the supply by running the plants with 24/7 with three shifts in 2013, according to the NSSF.

However, gun owners should be genuinely concerned about ammunition costs skyrocketing due to the law recently signed by California Gov. Jerry Brown that bans lead ammo for hunting in the state.

The Golden State is always leading the country in inventing absurd gun-control laws based on junk science. This new statute is based on two bogus claims: that lead ammunition kills off wildlife populations and that people can get sick from eating game shot with lead ammo.

"Banning traditional ammunition will result in an unprecedented constriction of supply and massive price increases," Mr. Keane of the NSSF said of the California law. "Large numbers of hunters will be driven out of the field and target shooters off the firing line."

Make no mistake, Mr. Obama and his gun-grabbing cohorts around the country want to infringe on the Second Amendment whenever possible. However, in the case of the lead smelter closing, gun owners ought not to be up in arms.

Congress renewed a ban on totally plastic guns for because they can't be detected by a metal detector. I'll bet all the terrorists in the world are going, "A ban on plastic guns? Oh, darn!" about this time.

Anyway, the anti-gun Democrat leaders wanted to expand the restrictions, but failed to be able to do so. See item #12 below, on the third rail of gun control.

House Dems give grudging support to 10-year extension of controversial gun ban
Lament bill as too weak; NRA doesn't oppose
by David Sherfinski-The Washington Times
December 3, 2013

The House voted Tuesday to renew a ban on undetectable plastic guns, sending the bill to the Senate, where Democrats must decide whether to accept it as is or pick a fight that could cause them to break the Dec. 9 deadline when the ban expires.

The proposed renewal, which passed the House by voice vote, would extend the Undetectable Firearms Act for 10 more years.

Democrats, citing advances in 3-D printing technology, say the law should be expanded to specifically require all guns to be made with at least some metal parts that can't be removed.

Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, vowed to force that fight next week when the Senate returns from a two-week Thanksgiving vacation, on the day the plastic gun ban expires. He has signaled that he is prepared to let the ban expire as he fights for tougher legislation.

"I'd rather have one day where you don't have a law and then they pass the tougher law on Tuesday than just have a 10-year extension and nothing else," Mr. Schumer said Tuesday. "The House passing this bill was a small first step, but it's certainly not enough."

He did say he'd prefer to have no gap at all and would seek unanimous consent to simply pass the House bill if the broader effort fails initially, but that he would continue to work on it if that happens.

Mr. Schumer and his allies say that expanding the law to require non-removable metal parts will make all guns detectable in airport or other building security checks.

It's unclear to what extent his fellow Senate Democrats are steeling for another fight over firearms ahead of midterm elections next year.

In order to overcome a potential Republican filibuster Mr. Schumer would have to win over at least some Senate Republicans and then try to work out an agreement with the House GOP.

The House bill, sponsored by Rep. Howard Coble, North Carolina Republican, extends the law, first enacted in 1988, making it illegal to manufacture, own, transport, buy or sell any firearm that does not register on a metal detector or does not present an accurate image when put through an X-ray machine.

"The fact that today's reauthorization passed by voice vote proves that there is overwhelming bipartisan support for this law," Mr. Coble said. "While we have heard that some want to amend the bill when it arrives in the Senate, I urge our colleagues on the other side of Capitol Hill to quickly enact a clean 10-year reauthorization so that this ban on undetectable weapons will not expire."

Mr. Schumer raised the issue in May when the State Department ordered Texas-based Defense Distributed to remove a 3-D gun model, called the Liberator, from its website.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also has issued warnings about the technology.

The ATF said federal firearms laws do not limit the technology or processes that can be used to make guns, but those who want to sell the manufactured weapons must obtain federal licenses.

Defense Distributed describes itself on its website as "a pending 501(c)(3) status nonprofit corporation in the state of Texas, organized and operated exclusively for charitable and literary purposes."

The organization said in a statement that the congressional push is "a gun-control effort wrapped in security theater."

Still, even House Democrats appeared to accept a straightforward extension with the prospect of revisiting the issue.

"I think the gun bill could be better, but this is a 10-year extension and obviously it can be worked on both in the Senate and the next Congress, and I think extending it is better than not extending it," House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, said Tuesday ahead of the vote.

The issue has split gun rights advocates.

Several groups urged House lawmakers to defeat the 10-year extension, saying it would give Mr. Schumer a vehicle for his plans and would ignite another fight over gun rights.

But the powerful National Rifle Association dismissed those concerns. In a statement, the group said its target is Mr. Schumer's bill, not Mr. Coble's.

"The NRA has been working for months to thwart expansion of the UFA by Sen. Chuck Schumer and others. We will continue to aggressively fight any expansion of the UFA or any other proposal that would infringe on our Second Amendment rights," the NRA said.

"Some groups have been circulating misinformation in order to create confusion over today's House vote. To be clear, Rep. Coble's bill does not expand current law in any way, as Sen. Schumer's proposal would do," the NRA said.

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12. Is gun control the new third rail in politics?
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As I said earlier, support for gun control took a huge chunk out of McAuliffe's lead over Cuccinelli and it also got 3 anti-gun Democrats out of office through recalls in Colorado.

Third rail? Yep. America has no interest in gun control, as Americans want to be more safe, not less safe.

IS GUN CONTROL THE NEW THIRD RAIL IN POLITICS?
by AWR HAWKINS
December 2, 2013

For the longest time, social security has been considered the untouchable third rail of politics. But if 2013 has demonstrated anything it seems to be that the new third rail in American politics is gun control.

Democrat lawmakers in Colorado passed draconian gun control in March, and by mid-September two of the lawmakers--senators John Morse (D-Colo. Springs) and Angela Giron (D-Pueblo)--had been recalled.

Moreover, earlier this week a third Colorado state senator who supported gun control--Evie Hudak (D-Westminster)--capitulated under recall pressure and plans to relinquish her office.

On top of this, consider the miserable losses racked up by Virginia delegates supported by Bloomberg's Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) in November. As Breitbart News reported on November 11, the NRA literally beat Bloomberg-backed delegates by a score of 65 to 2.

And these pro-gun control delegate losses happened on the same day that the mainstream media seized on Terry McAuliffe's gubernatorial victory to back their theory that gun control was the way to go. However, on the same day that McAuliffe won Virginia's gubernatorial race, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said he "would love to bring" gun control back up but he can't get Senators to support it.

On top of these factors, Jennifer Kerns and Free California are planning to bring recalls to California similar to those that were so successful in Colorado.

Gun control is a third rail in politics and the GOP would be wise to make Democrats own attempts to infringe upon the Second Amendment in 2014.

Fast & Furious back with NY Post's Dodson book excerpt
by Dave Workman
December 1, 2013

Operation Fast and Furious is back in the headlines with today's excerpt of agent John Dodson's potentially explosive new book "The Unarmed Truth," about the gun running sting operation that put an estimated 2,000 guns into criminal circulation, all done with the knowledge of people in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The book is scheduled for release on Tuesday, according to the New York Post, which printed the excerpt in its Sunday edition. The Gun Wire headlined the Post release through much of Sunday.

Fast and Furious was once dubbed "the perfect storm of idiocy" by another ATF agent during a hearing before Congressman Darrell Issa's House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Dodson testified on Capitol Hill in 2011, but at the time — even after his interview with award-winning CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson — it was paid rather short attention by the press.

Many have suggested that the press turned a blind eye to Fast and Furious because it could stain the Obama administration. Since President Barack Obama took ownership of the scandal by extending executive privilege to hundreds of Justice Department documents subpoenaed by Issa's committee, now that the New York Post has chosen to run an excerpt of Dodson's book, it may be harder for the press to ignore.

National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea and independent blogger Mike Vanderboegh originally broke the Fast and Furious story after learning that guns purchased by a Fast and Furious suspect were recovered at the scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry's murder. That slaying was in mid-December 2010, almost three years ago, and as Dodson observes in his excerpt,

"We gave thousands of guns to Mexican drug cartels. Americans died. Where is the outrage?"

Where, indeed? Perhaps Tuesday's release of Dodson's book will provide some answers.

According to the New York Post, John Dodson's "The Unarmed Truth" will be published by "Threshold Editions, a division of Simon & Schuster."

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14. Why good people should be armed [VIDEO]
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A young lady makes some great points on self-defense in this video. This is exactly what we need - more women getting deeply involved in protection our right to self-defense.

Disarmed citizens are vulnerable to petty crooks, rapists, psychopaths and street gangs. Criminals and psychopaths ignore "Gun Free Zones", that's what makes them criminals. Everybody with common sense understands that "Gun Free Zones" are ineffective at deterring violent criminals. Unfortunately, common sense is not all that common.

A report issued by the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) shows that gun bans result in higher murder rates.

The report looks at the January 1997 "handgun ban in England and Wales" to substantiate this.

Between the time of that ban and 2012, the "homicides rates" rose, exponentially at times, and fell, but they only fell to a level lower than 1996 rates in one year--and that was 2010. Studies that claim "success" for the handgun ban are frequently an outworking of crime numbers that have been manipulated to make the ban look effective.

Breitbart News reported on this manipulation on October 18, showing that there are certain "bureaucratically designated 'targets'"--or "thresholds"--which a crime in Britain has to meet before it is even reported as a crime to begin with.

On top of this, the CPRC report shows that some Home Office reports to Parliament have blatantly stated that homicide numbers "exclude any cases which do not result in conviction, or where the person is not prosecuted on ground of self-defense or otherwise."

The report shows what such an approach to reporting would like in the U.S., where there were 14,827 murders in 2012. That figure represents a ratio of 4.7 murders per every 100,000 citizens. There were only 7,133 arrests tied to these murders. Using "only the people who were arrested (not just convicted) would lower the U.S. murder rate to 2.26 per 100,000."

The CPRC report also shows that the murder rates in Chicago and D.C. remain high "relative to the other nine largest cities" in the U.S., even though gun control has long been a tool used by lawmakers and law enforcement in both.

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17. Murder and homicide rates before and after gun bans
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Murder and homicide rates before and after gun bans
by John R. Lott
December 1, 2013

Every place that guns have been banned, murder rates have gone up. You cannot point to one place where it has fallen, whether it's Chicago or D.C. or even island nations such as England, Jamaica, or Ireland.

For an example of homicide rates before and after a ban, take the case of the handgun ban in England and Wales in January 1997 (source here see Table 1.01 and the column marked "Offences currently recorded as homicide per million population"). After the ban, clearly homicide rates bounce around over time, but there is only one year (2010) where the homicide rate is lower than it was in 1996. The immediate effect was about a 50 percent increase in homicide rates. The homicide rate only began falling when there was a large increase in the number of police officers during 2003 and 2004. Despite the huge increase in the number of police, the murder rate still remained slightly higher than the immediate pre-ban rate.

As an aside, homicides in England and Wales are not counted the same as in other countries. Their homicide numbers "exclude any cases which do not result in conviction, or where the person is not prosecuted on grounds of self defence or otherwise" (Report to Parliament). The problem isn't just that it reduces the recorded homicide rate in England and Wales, but what would a similar reduction mean for the US.

If taken literally, a simple comparison can be made. In 2012, the US murder rate was 4.7 per 100,000, a total of 14,827. Arrests amounted to only 7,133. Using only people who were arrested (not just convicted) would lower the US murder rate to 2.26 per 100,000. More information on the adjustment for England and Wales is available here and it suggests that while many homicides are excluded it isn't as large as it would appear (in 1997, the downward adjustment would be about 12 percent).

Other information for Ireland and Jamaica.

Jamaica's crime data were obtained from a variety of sources. Its murder data from 1960 to 1967 were obtained from Terry Lacey, Violence and Politics in Jamaica, 1960–70 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1977). Professor Gary Mauser obtained the data from 1970 to 2000 from a Professor A. Francis in Jamaica and the data from 2001 to 2006 from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (http://www.statinja.com/stats.html). Jamaica's population estimates were obtained from NationMaster.com (http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ peo_pop-people-population&date=1975).

How about for DC and Chicago (Figures taken from More Guns, Less Crime)?

The raw data for DC over a long period of time is available here (the crime rates are available on the bottom half of the screen).

Now Australia didn't have a complete ban on guns, they didn't even ban all semi-automatic guns, but I have a discussion on the changes in their crime rates here (see also here).

Much of the debate over gun control focuses on what is called "cross-sectional" data. That is crime rates are examined at one particular point of time across different places. Here are two paragraphs from John Lott's The Bias Against Guns that explain the basic problem with cross-sectional analysis.

First, the cross-sectional studies: Suppose for the sake of argument that high-crime countries are the ones that most frequently adopt the most stringent gun control laws. Suppose further, for the sake of argument, that gun control indeed lowers crime, but not by enough to reduce rates to the same low levels prevailing in the majority of countries that did not adopt the laws. Looking across countries, it would then falsely appear that stricter gun control resulted in higher crime. Economists refer to this as an "endogeniety" problem. The adoption of the policy is a reaction to other events (that is, "endogenous"), in this case crime. To resolve this, one must examine how the high-crime areas that chose to adopt the controls changed over time —not only relative to their own past levels but also relative to areas that did not institute such controls.

Unfortunately, many contemporary discussions rely on misinterpretations of cross-sectional data. The New York Times recently conducted a cross-sectional study of murder rates in states with and without the death penalty, and found that "Indeed, 10 of the 12 states without capital punishment have homicide rates below the national average, Federal Bureau of Investigation data shows, while half the states with the death penalty have homicide rates above the national average." However, they erroneously concluded that the death penalty did not deter murder. The problem is that the states without the death penalty (Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Vermont) have long enjoyed relatively low murder rates, something that might well have more to do with other factors than the death penalty. Instead one must compare, over time, how murder rates change in the two groups – those adopting the death penalty and those that did not.

NOW, the truth comes out. The mother may have lied to get him guns, didn't ensure he was on his medicine and apparently went on vacation without him. There was probably a reason she was his first victim.

Sandy Hook killer's mother taught him to shoot aged four, 'lied to buy him guns' and abandoned her 'lost cause' son to go on vacations alone, new book reveals
by Daniel Bates
December 3, 2013

Nancy Lanza took her killer son Adam shooting from the age of just four, may have lied on federal paperwork to buy him guns and went on long holidays alone without the boy she branded a 'lost cause', a new book reveals today.

It lays out the strongest case yet against the mother of the Sandy Hook shooter - just days after parents of the victims said her 'bad parenting' was partly to blame.

Nancy knew as far back as 2000 that there was 'something very wrong' with the boy and effectively abandoned her disturbed son last year while she went on trips by herself.

Meanwhile, Adam Lanza was left alone in the house they shared where he spent his days playing violent video games and filling in a 7ft by 4ft spreadsheet ranking the worst mass murders of all time by number of fatalities.

Just three days before his rampage - the second worst in U.S. history - she checked into a four-star hotel for two nights and paid $450 for a luxury spa package that included a 50-minute facial and a 50-minute body treatment.

The book, written by a journalist who spent a year living in the community investigating the outrage, also reveals that Adam, 20, may have originally intended to target Newtown High School in Connecticut instead of Sandy Hook Elementary.

The attack was only foiled when Adam saw some police cars by the school, which he only left when his mother pulled him out.

In Newtown: An American Tragedy, Matthew Lysiak goes further than the official report into the massacre which was released last month by the Danbury State Attorney General's office.

It concluded that Adam acted alone when he shot dead Nancy, 20 children and six schoolteachers before taking his own life, but that his motives would never be known.

While nobody can know what it was actually like to live with Adam, whose Asperger's led to severe behavioral problems, much of the evidence now asks very serious questions of Nancy.

Family friend Marvin LaFontaine told Lysiak how he used to invite Nancy, Adam and his brother Ryan, now 24, over for shooting sessions with himself and his own son Jordan.

They would go to a makeshift gun range on his property where they would shoot a lightweight aluminium Ruger 10/22 at paper bullseyes and other targets.

According to Mr LaFontaine Adam was 'comfortable with a firearm' - at the age of just four years old.

The book reads: 'The Ruger was lightweight and easy to handle and, in Nancy's opinion, the ideal weapon for her young child.

'Adam's tiny face would tense up as he concentrated while his mother would patiently go over, step by step, the proper hold and technique for the firearm.'

Marvin explains: 'From the beginning you could tell that Adam liked the feel of the gun in his hands'.

Russell Ford, another of Nancy's friends, added: 'She came from a culture of guns. That's how she was raised in New Hampshire. 'Live free or die', that was the kind of woman Nancy Lanza was'.

When Adam started to have problems at school Nancy saw shooting as the 'perfect outlet' for 'bonding sessions' together.

The book explains that in order to do this, Nancy had to lie to get him his own guns.

On March 29, 2010 she went into Rearview Gun Sales in East Windsor, Connecticut, to purchase a Bushmaster XM15 rifle and later bought a SIG Sauer 9-millimeter pistol at the same store - both of these were used in the slaughter.

On the ATF transaction paperwork - on which it was a federal offence to lie - Nancy ticked the boxes that indicated she was buying the weapons for herself and nobody else.

But the book reads: 'Some of the weapons Nancy bought she kept. Others she gave to Adam'.

Nancy was left to raise Adam on her own when she and his father Peter, 55, a tax accountant, split in 2001 and later divorced, with her winning custody of the two boys.

In 2000 she told a friend that there was 'something very wrong' with Adam, the book says.

In 2008 she told a friend that she thought he was a 'lost cause', around the time Ryan moved away to college. He would not move back.

As of the start of last year Nancy began making regular trips away as she told a friend that it was 'already too late' to help Adam.

Her vacations included trips to London, Boston, New York, New Orleans, San Francisco and Maine.

During Thanksgiving last year, just weeks before the shooting, she left Adam alone with a prepared meal in the fridge while she was in New England with her family.

Three days before his rampage she checked into the Omni Mount Washington resort in New Hampshire where she messaged a friend that she was having a 'heavenly' time in the 25,000 sq ft spa.

During her stay at the hotel, which offers dog sledding, skiing and hiking, she called home once to check on Adam. He did not answer.

Contrary to earlier reports, Newtown: An American tragedy reveals how in the weeks before the tragedy Nancy had gone into Adam's room - which should have set off the biggest alarm bells of all.

There she would have seen the windows were covered over with black bags.

Scattered amongst violent computer games like Doom and Half Life would have been newspaper cuttings and Internet articles relating to mass school shootings dating back to 1891, showing that Adam researched his 'subject' like an academic.

Most damning of all, she would also have seen a 7ft by 4ft poster on the wall with the top 500 mass killings of all time, ranked by fatalities.

The official report had already gone into detail about Nancy's apparent failings and after its release the parents of those whose children died were blunt in their assessment of where the blame lay.

Nicole Hockley, who lost her six-year-old son Dylan, said: 'It's clear that he had mental illness and intervention was not made. And there was not responsible gun ownership, either.'

The report detailed how Nancy, who was 52 when she died, allowed him to avoid speaking to her for the three months before he carried out his massacre, even though they shared the same house in Sandy Hook alone together and had bedrooms on the second floor.

Adam would only communicate with her by email meaning there would have been awkward silences around the breakfast table or as they passed each other on the stairs.

Nancy allowed him to not take his medication for Asperger's, bought him violent video games and let him play them for days on end.

She was even planning to give him a check for Christmas to buy his own pistol.

But it wasn't always like this. When Adam was very young, Nancy was fiercely protective of him when she realized he was different from other children and his older brother.

She decided to home school him because she felt nowhere was giving him the close attention he deserved and because he was so unhappy going to classes.

Nancy's decision to teach him herself - she did not have a job and relied on the money from her divorce settlement - no doubt made her life easier, but also contributed to her son's isolation.

As he grew older, Nancy decided to enroll him in school and introduce him into society more. Adam moved from one school to another, but each time his mother claimed staff were not doing enough for him.

When he was younger Adam achieved a rare acceptance among his peers at Newtown High where he started to attend in 2006 under the watch of the school's head of security, Richard Novia, who took him under his wing.

In his sophomore year he took part in Tech Club where his talents with computers flourished and started to come out of his shell.

But when Mr Novia left at the end of that year Nancy took Adam out of school. He became sick of not fitting in and being several years younger than his classmates. Adam started refusing to go in and Nancy, worn down by the daily battles, let him.

The book says that her decision may have given her son the target he was looking for on December 14.

It reads: 'According to a source familiar with the investigation, Adam Lanza's car was believed to have been identified on the school surveillance footage circling the (Newtown High) school parking lot.

'The official believed Adam spotted two police cars, which were parked in the lot, and decided to move on'.

His final destination would be Sandy Hook Elementary School.

As the first anniversary of the killing approaches, Peter Lanza has yet to make any public comments beyond his initial statement.

His sister-in-law Marsha told MailOnline last week that he is a 'broken man' and that the family still consider the shooting an 'open wound' that they cannot heal.

Peter's statement said that 'we too are asking why' and that his heart went out to those who lost loved ones.

It read: 'Our family is grieving along with all those who have been affected by this enormous tragedy.

'No words can truly express how heartbroken we are. We are in a state of disbelief and trying to find whatever answers we can.'

Having a gun is no guarantee of survival, sadly. But it does give you a fighting chance. in this case the victim was up against THREE criminals. She was murdered, but not before she tagged one of her murderers with a bullet in the stomach.

Ms Hendrix, who was known as Dot to her friends, had been returning to her Anderson County home at 1am when the gang allegedly tried to rob her.

The 76-year-old fired at the group and one of them fired back, hitting Ms Hendrix in the abdomen and the arm.

A neighbor called police after hearing the gunshots, but Ms Hendrix died outside her home while a relative held her hand.

Hagood, who she shot in the stomach, was taken to hospital where he is under guard. As well as being charged with murder, the 33-year-old has been served with a family bench warrant for unpaid child support of $80,000.

The two other suspects, Geer, 26, and Galloway, 23, also face murder charges.

Ms Hendrix, who volunteered at a bingo club, had applied for a carry and conceal weapon and learned to shoot after being robbed outside the same home in 2011.

The robbers behind the earlier attack were never caught, and police have not said whether they believe the two incidents are connected.

Anderson County Sheriff John Skipper said: 'This was not a random act. The robbery was planned, and she was specifically targeted.'

'The trio had knowledge that Hendrix carried large sums of money home with her at night,' he added.

Mr Lollis said his sister had learned to fire a gun after the earlier attack, and had a carry and conceal permit, according to News 13.

'She had been robbed right here at her house, coming out of her house. That's what made her get her gun. I don't understand why she wanted to keep coming back,' he said.

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20. Obama's home town by the (gun control) numbers
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Gun control doesn't work and neither Obama nor the gun control groups want to talk about Chicago.

For them it is not about saving lives, it's about gun control for gun-control's sake.

Chicago, which has some of the toughest gun control laws in America, had a rough November. Despite the cold weather, it was a popular month for shooting. The website heyjackass.com has collected the final November totals:

Shot & Killed: 23
Shot & Wounded: 111
Total Homicides: 27

The site has some helpful graphics. (Editor's note: various graphs at above link)

Don't hold your breath waiting for President Obama to comment on the carnage and the effetciveness of gun control.

But Korwin and a conservative watchdog group are joining up with the American Civil Liberties Union to argue against those restrictions. While Phoenix is hoping to avoid controversy by barring political messages at city bus stops, Korwin's legal team and supporters argue that the state offers more expansive free-speech protections, according to the Arizona Republic.

The city reportedly allowed Korwin to put up a slightly different ad, which said: "Guns Stop Crime."

Racism linked with gun ownership and opposition to gun control in white Americans
by PressRelease
November 30, 2013

A new study has found that higher levels of racism in white Americans is associated with having a gun in the home and greater opposition to gun control policies.

The research, published in PLoS One, was led by Dr Kerry O'Brien from The University of Manchester and Monash University and used data from a large representative sample of white US voters.

After accounting for numerous other factors such as income, education and political ideology, the researchers found that for each one point increase (on a scale from one to five) in symbolic racism there was a 50 percent increase in the odds of having a gun in the home and a 28 percent increase in support for policies allowing people to carry concealed guns.

Each one point increase in symbolic racism (a modern measure of anti-black racism) was also associated with a 27 percent increase in the odds of opposing bans on hand guns in the home. After accounting for those who already had a gun in the home, the odds were reduced to a non-significant 17 percent increase. However, the authors note that this reduction is unsurprising as opposition to bans on guns equates to self interest on behalf of those who already own a gun and do not wish to give it up. And racism was already strongly associated with having a gun in the home.

The research was stimulated by gun control debates in the US after mass shootings such as the Sandy Hook tragedy, and research showing that with all things being equal black Americans are more likely to be shot than whites. The most recent figures show that there are approximately 38,000 gun related deaths in the US each year. With other research suggesting that having a gun in the home is related to a 2.7 and 4.8 fold increase in the risk of a member of that home dying from homicide or suicide, respectively.

Dr O'Brien said: "Coming from countries with strong gun control policies, and a 30-fold lower rate of gun-related homicides, we found the arguments for opposing gun control counterintuitive and somewhat illogical. For example, US whites oppose gun control to a far greater extent than do blacks, but whites are actually more likely to kill themselves with their guns, than be killed by someone else. Why would you keep them? So we decided to examine what social and psychological factors predict gun ownership and opposition to gun control."

Conservatism, anti-government sentiment, party identification, being from a southern state, were also associated with opposition to gun controls, but the association between racism and the gun-related outcomes remained after accounting for these factors and other participant characteristics (age, education, income, gender).

Symbolic racism supplanted old-fashioned or overt/blatant racism which was associated with open support for race inequality and segregation under 'Jim Crow Laws', but it still captures the anti-black sentiment and traditional values that underpinned blatant racism. Symbolic racism has also been found to be related to stronger opposition to policies that may benefit blacks (e.g. welfare), and greater support for policies that seem to disadvantage blacks (e.g. longer prison sentences).

Study co-author Dr Dermot Lynott, from Lancaster University, said: "We were initially surprised that no one had studied this issue before; however, the US government cut research funding for gun-related research over decade and a half ago, so research in this area has been somewhat suppressed."

Dr O'Brien said: "According to a Pew Research Center report the majority of white Americans support stricter gun control, but the results of our study suggest that those who oppose gun reform tend to have a stronger racial bias, tend to be politically and ideologically conservative and from southern states, and have higher anti-government sentiment."

He added: "The study is a first step, but there needs to be more investment in empirical research around how racial bias may influence people's policy decisions, particularly those policies that impact on the health and wellbeing of US citizens."

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